Hermit Spyware

Question 1

Why in news?

Answer 1

Hermit, a sophisticated spyware, is believed to have targeted iPhone and Android devices in Italy and Kazakhstan.

Question 2

What is hermit?

Answer 2

Hermit is spyware developed by the Italian commercial spyware vendor RCS Lab that can be covertly installed on mobile phones running iOS and Android.

Lookout, a cloud-based security company, has recently discovered a newspyware
called “Hermit” that is capable of affecting bothAndroid and iOSdevices.

Google and Lookout have confirmed thatHermit
is a commercial spyware that is known to be used by governments with victims in Kazakhstan, Italy and northern Syria.

The spyware was first detected in Kazakhstan in April after the government violently suppressed protests against government policies.

Question 3

What is the strength and reaches of this spyware?

Answer 3

As per the report, this nasty Android app is distributed by text message which looks like coming from a legitimate source. The malware can impersonate other apps that are developed by telecom companies and manufacturers like Samsung and Oppo which tricks the victim to download the malware.

to the tech giant Google, the Hermit iOS app corrupts Apple enterprise developer certificates and allows the spyware to be sideloaded on a victim’s device from outside the app store. The iOS app also packs six different exploits out of which two are zero-day vulnerabilities.

Question 4

Term- 0 day vulnerability

Answer 4

zero-day is a computer-software vulnerability previously unknown to those who should be interested in its mitigation, like the vendor of the target software. Until the vulnerability is mitigated, hackers can exploit it to adversely affect programs, data, additional computers or a network.